How can people control the government
civics
Answers
How the people control government?
Way back in the Great Depression when they taught civics or government in our public schools, we were taught that the people controlled government with their ballot. I think that might have been so in those hard times. I have marched up many years and am asking myself the question again: How do the people control government? It is not an easy question
The only thing that has changed in the election process is that more persons have the right to vote and that is a good thing. The electoral pool has changed, all genders and all minorities have the right to cast a ballot and that is a good thing, every citizen should have the right to participate in the election of their governors. Anyone who is qualified should have the right to run for the office of their choice. Age and wealth seem to be the only requirements today so a lot of the vote casters do not have the two requirements. There are two things happening to the wealthy today. 1. They are getting wealthier. 2. They are getting fewer. This means the voters’ choice of who should govern is getting fewer too.
In my lifetime we have gone through many elections. Sometimes the Republicans controlled the governing bodies and sometimes the Democrats have had a turn. Each of the parties governed in about the same fashion, they did what they thought was needed to get them elected again. They took care of their friends and those who contributed big to their campaigns. Anyone would have a hard time remembering when they cared for the best interests of the country.
We keep hearing that this is our government. We elect the people who run the government. They are our servants doing the public good. Somewhere in the Bible it is mentioned that man cannot serve two masters. I wonder how the elected officials can serve the people who voted them into office and the wealthy patrons who provided the money so they could obtain the office.
I have thought a lot about how the people, the electors, can gain control of the government. We all know that money is what controls the government. With wages falling and more and more people falling below the poverty line it doesn’t look like the people will ever be able to put enough money together to control elections. So a vast uprising of the indigent is not going to happen.
If the all people refused to pay their taxes they might be able to gain some control. Many years ago the elected officials took care of that when they instituted the payroll tax. The average voter never sees a little more than 20 percent of their wages. The money is earned but it is whisked off to Washington, D.C. without it ever even passing through their hands. Income tax, social security and medical tax pass right to the hands of the governors. What people hope is that the government has taken a little too much and when they file their tax return the government will return a little. You know that the government has their money for a whole year and never pays a penny of interest to the people who earned it.
I think there is a way the government can be brought into line. This is my suggestion. Everyone should refuse to file a tax return. What a mess for the IRS. They would be chasing everyone in the country to find out if they paid the proper tax. The government couldn’t hire enough workers to handle that task. They would need to structure some bargain with the population, and it would need to be a good one, to get the people to file their returns.
The first bill demanded should read that if the elected officials were going to pass bills that would diminish the earnings of the common man, they would have to diminish the elected official’s earnings by a matter of three fold. This would stop elected officials from retaining their salaries and pensions while the earnings of the common man went down. I don’t think it would take very long for our elected officials to come around to a more positive view of what is good for the country and enact the proper legislation.
It is only a thought folks. Don’t take me seriously. It will never happen even if the ship of state has a Titanic tendency.